The play forest drOOmbergen is one of the socio-cultural projects we worked on for many years together with numerous volunteers. You can also find the project on our website under: Conversion of the presbytery garden into a green square. The project was featured in a study by Socius and Endeavour on inspiring civic initiatives.
In this article, Endeavour highlights the different ways in which citizen initiatives create new socio-cultural spaces and the strategies citizens use to activate places or respond to spatial challenges. They interviewed a variety of projects: Dwarsligger in Melle, Samen Voor Morgen in Sint-Jans-Molenbeek, Tuinwijk 2020 in Maasmechelen, Lieve Zusjes Stoere Broers in Kortrijk, O.666 in Ostend, Speelbos drOOmbergen in Oombergen, and Free 54 in Brussels. Based on these stories, they formulated seven lessons on the rich, complementary, and overlapping relationships between civic initiatives and their places.
On September 22, 2022, Socius and Endeavour presented these lessons to more than seventy professionals with a strong interest in citizen initiatives: socio-cultural workers, local officials, educators, and researchers. They were invited to reflect on their relationship with various initiatives and to consider ways to strengthen their approaches. This reflection formed the conclusion of the co-creative process that produced the article.
Source: De kracht van de plek, p.7
